New Testingstan

Well, "Turnabout Intruder".... actually, I remember disliking that last time, but I thought it was OK this time. Everyone talks about the "your world of starship captains doesn't admit women" line... but I took it to mean family life and captain life don't go well together. Lester was just ill-tempered and bitter. But otherwise, I found the episode decent. 5/10.

The remastered episodes have some nice wallpapers btw, shots of the Enterprise approaching planets, fun!

Well, I'll be starting Babylon 5 soon, just gotta set up a dvd player here... but first, boring work time.

timmy wrote:Kate Vernon made the regular duty uniform look good in Axanar

Axanar's still going/Released? I thought they got squashed.

Prelude never really grabbed me.

Fuck Axanar. You have to fuck up pretty bad to get me to side with CBS on anything Trek-related but goddamn they managed it.

I just started looking it up cuz I watched "Whom Gods Destroy" and the name was familiar... I see they are trying to do some story from that... but I haven't followed this.

Short version of the hatred? Did they just go too far on copyright?

They basically made it a for-profit enterprise (lolol) because up until then CBS hadn't been very strict with fanfilms. The end result was a million dollars was raised, which was serious chingy, but then it turned out that the creator of Axanar was using that money to basically set up his own film production studio. This caused CBS to notice them, which then made them go THE HELL YOU SAY, and then the whole trek fanfilm scene has shit the bed.

They have shit like a donor's-only store that you need a hush hush password to use and people have complained they still haven't got their backer kit shit from them (for perspective, the kickstarter for Axanar was over two years ago). Tony Todd was attached to the thing and he was in Prelude but he pulled out because he had concerns about the way the operation was being run. It's very dodgy.

There's fucking no way they're going to win the lawsuit either but what fucking galls me is how these fucking arseholes used fan money to start up their own private business, then start acting like they 'saved' Trek and people are fucking lapping it up. And I was a sucker who put in $30, so I kinda take it personally. Meanwhile Star Trek Renegades wore its heart on its sleeve with regards to its fanfilm project and they wound up having to nix any and all Trek references in order to not run afoul of the new fanfilm guidelines CBS and Paramount put out (which are very harsh and an overreaction but at the same time I can kinda understand why they would do that). Star Trek Continues (which is very much a love letter to TOS) I don't know what they're going to do going forward, but they promised to deliver the episodes they got funding for before deciding on what their future will be.

tl;dr the axanar guys are dodgy AF and shit the bed for every other fanfilm production out there so fuck them and fuck everything

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB_pEjAHgpI

I'm watching this guy on youtube talk to Rick Sternbach about the design on the DS9 model, and at about 14:30, Sternback points out where the promenade is... I never realized that. I guess my mind just assumed it is circular, so it must be one of the rings, but obviously it isn't big enough to be one of them. The location makes perfect sense.

I think DS9 btw is really cool looking... Star Trek is so strong on ship and station design, a lot of unique and awesome looking shapes.

Around 19 mins, Sternbach talks about the size and the thought process that went into it too. Arbitrary size, but with logical reasoning. That was enjoyable.

At a guess upper level of the main pod just below Ops. I think you can see the big ovular windows on the top level of the promenade set on the exterior model.

ETa: does he explain the reason behind the pylons going in (constraining the size of ships than can dock) rather than out?

You got it!

Yeah it was the design evolution. The sketch before it was three rings like the traditional picture of the atom (a simple yet distinct shape that makes a good brand) then Rick Berman said he liked it, but split two of the rings.... and that became the concept of the pylons.

He didn't say this, but the rings going in make it easier to put a globe shield around, probably both in and out of universe, easier to animate the effect.

To be fair, DS9 is deceptively small. We saw the Enterprise docked to it and it was small enough that you could potentially dock two more similar sized ships at the other pylons.

Also, speaking about DS9, the crowdfunding for the doco What We Left Behind is nearly into its final week. It has one stretch goal remaining that looks very interesting and they kept a lid on it until a few days ago - select scenes remastered into HD including working with Doug Drexler to HDify some CGI models.

I really, really hope this is some kind of stealth remaster viability project. This is a documentary that's raised almost half a million dollars. I don't want to get my hopes up but I'm hoping this is Ira Stephen Behr trying to prove to CBS that a DS9 remaster project has viability. The original pitch video for it made me think this could be a secret motivation because Hanah Hatae (Molly O'Brien on the show, though y'all should know that so I don't know why I'm explaining it) made a short speech about how DS9 has gotten better with age and is increasing its popularity. Doing a rewatch of the show recently I'm struck by how good it is even in the weaker first season, and how much it would look amazing in HD. I'd urge you guys to consider supporting this funding campaign.

So, I just now bought the DS9 dvds. (Well, about a month ago, the price suddenly became affordable!).. I might spring for blu ray on top of it, but only if the price was very right (for example I already owned bsg season 1,2,3 on dvd, but bought blu-ray complete series anyway since I could get it for $50).

But whoa, I might get behind that igg anyway.

Hmm. I am tempted by that igg.

Suddenly so sad we never got any Ds9 movies...

But then it would be hard to continue after What You Leave Behind and make it accessible to the new comers. They could have copied B5 again and made film set during the series and run the continuity snarls it would create.

Flame away guys but I watched STID today for the second time today and.... it's alright.

It's one of those movies that once you know all the stupid things that are coming and how they're doing them you can accept it more.

It... tried. It tried to give Kirk a bit of an arc and it did some nice character stuff with Spock. It tried to have nice bit of back and forth with Khan and how sympathetic he was before flicking him to full evil. But gooly was there some stupid gratuitous stuff. And the attempts at fan service with Khan and Section 31 really back fired for me.

Sure, if it weren't for the underlying feeling of 'this is not what star trek is for' then it'd be a decent enough brainless action movie

I didn't dislike it either.

I mean, I literally fell asleep in the theater partway through and woke up for the "KHAAAAAN!!!" part, but that was just because I woke up early that day.

Stofsk wrote:Also, speaking about DS9, the crowdfunding for the doco What We Left Behind is nearly into its final week. It has one stretch goal remaining that looks very interesting and they kept a lid on it until a few days ago - select scenes remastered into HD including working with Doug Drexler to HDify some CGI models.

I really, really hope this is some kind of stealth remaster viability project. This is a documentary that's raised almost half a million dollars. I don't want to get my hopes up but I'm hoping this is Ira Stephen Behr trying to prove to CBS that a DS9 remaster project has viability. The original pitch video for it made me think this could be a secret motivation because Hanah Hatae (Molly O'Brien on the show, though y'all should know that so I don't know why I'm explaining it) made a short speech about how DS9 has gotten better with age and is increasing its popularity. Doing a rewatch of the show recently I'm struck by how good it is even in the weaker first season, and how much it would look amazing in HD. I'd urge you guys to consider supporting this funding campaign.

Holy crap. It actually met that stretch limit.

Re-watched Beyond at last. Still really enjoyed it. There's some wasted potential with Elba/Kral but a rewatch bonus made some of his dialogue (where he talks about the different world he was born into) quite interesting.

I like the warp effect for the Enterprise. I was amused at the bees analogy. It's exactly like what Futurama said TOS did. And the tech solution to the swarm is actually a fun, if very silly sequence.

There was one bit in particular that I wondered about and if it was part of the rewrites/reshoots. Where Bones and Kirk drink Chekov's booze. Chekov does claim scotch was a russian invention later so maybe it's from the original script. But they drink chekov's booze with an empty glass between them. In-universe its a tribute to Kirk's dad. Out of universe it could be read as tribute to Anton Yelchin. But then it could be a coincidence.

Any way, Rumour has the next one's going to involve Chris Hemsworth/Kirk's Dad. Considering the reboot's sort of homage of the original films. (Though '09 and Beyond much less so than STID) it would make sense for 4 to be time travel.

dear mr. and mrs. cadetparents,


wow, i really fucked the dog today. some crazy asshole hijacked a starfleet ship and came right up next to me and shot up the enterprise like you wouldn't believe. i've been in a shitload of space fights and even the goddamn klingons never fucked the ship up so hard. i probably should have raised the shields but i didn't feel like filling out the paperwork on a TS-18 incident and i figured a starfleet ship was safe to roll up with.

anyway cadet jeff died a hero's death. the doc tells me his lungs dissolved after he took a snootful of engine coolant, due to phaser fire rupturing the primary coolant loop. i'm sure he was brave enough to stifle the gurgling screams of agony so his crewmates could unfuck the ship long enough to limp away and [REDACTED BY ORDER OF FEDERATION COUNCIL DIRECTIVE SCD-2104].

i would say your son will be posthumously awarded some medals and a promotion, but in the enlightened space-future we don't value such things. i'll try to do better next time i get the ship completely shot up.


your most humble and obedient servant,

admiral james t. kirk